Hey - don’t drag me into this! 

I’ve been pleased to see the traffic go by.  

I was chatting to Tom Johnson in the workshop just yesterday over a slightly
mysterious veneered box with a very tasty veneered lid about what it could be,
and how to match in veneer for some chips from the corners.   The basis for all
of that repair (that’s relevant) would be to find timber in your stash to match.
Tom has samples worthy of a BAFRA stash  (BAFRA - The British Antique Furniture
Restorers)
To become a member of BAFRA you are inspected and have to show that you have an
adequate stash of old timber to be able to match anything that comes in for
grain / texture / colour.

The word ‘match’ is interesting.  I recommend you all join IWCS and gather some
samples, and swap samples, and trade samples and so forth.  You soon realise
that finding an exact match is probably impossible, and indeed, you’d need to
have the original tree and board to get the same growth conditions, so same
marking and density.  So we restore with something close, but lighter.  The
essential is to make an invisible join - avoid straight lines.

Then the skill - experience - comes in.  A likely route would be to use shellac
to seal the repair and make it controllable, and removable.  Then use gentle
stains to refine the colour.  I say gentle, because even if you know you have
the right colour (color, Paddy) you would apply at half or third strength,
aiming to apply several coats to creep up on the colour you need.  You may want
to use a water based stain so you can wipe it off if necessary, finally ending
up with the colour that will be correct after you apply a final seal of palest
blondest shellac.
Even then, you may not be done.
Take a fine artists paint brush and some acrylic paint, and mix up tones of
burnt umber, brown, black, yellow to match, and break up your joint line with
many, many many fine dots of colour so that the underlying joint line vanishes.
No strokes, just a near dry brush.

Then you apply the final top surface seal over the entire job.

And when you look at the time you spent, you shake your head to get the added
knowledge settled down in there and say ’That took too long, and cost too much
time and effort’
You also say ‘I could do better next time now I’ve had that experience’ 


And you go to sleep that night with a warm glow of slightly smug self
satisfaction, knowing that you’ve rescued something, saved something - the
planet, some valuable never to be found again tree, and most of all, your
sanity.

I’ll actually try and remember to take photo’s when I start in on that box.  


Richard Wilson
in a sunny Northumberland, where sunshine and summer has returned now that Tom
has left (Wonder if it’s connected)








> On 17 May 2022, at 21:53, Don Schwartz  wrote:
> 
> Paul
> 
> Wood identification is both art and science, and generally darned frustrating.
> 
> FWIW, I wouldn't apply any chemicals at all until I had a chance to see the
wood BEFORE it gets altered in any way by your process. And because sunshine
bleaches so much furniture, I would suggest you flip it over, clean it and then
apply a card scraper to the underside in one or two locations to see the
variance in the wood there, even if it's been finished. That should give you a
much better view of what you're working with.
> 
> In the end, you needn't absolutely repair with the same specie. Something
close to grain and texture is most important. It's best to start with patches a
bit lighter than the target. Colour you can always adjust with tints and finish.
I'm sure Richard Wilson will provide more insight.
> 
> Good luck!
> 
> Don
> 
> On 2022-05-16 3:11 p.m., Paul Gardner wrote:
>> Assembled Galootarati,
>> 
>> Some help if you please.  I've got a table that needs some repair work done
>> that will require some replacement pieces.  I'd like to use the same
>> species if possible but if that isn't in the cards I'd like a close match.
>> The top obviously has a glaze or stain of some sort which will be reapplied
>> when finished to match the rest of the piece.  The only hints I have is
>> that the table is probably 80-100 years old and possibly Italian in
>> origin.  Here are some pictures I hope will be helpful.  Any advice or
>> suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
>> 
>> https://kirkhmb.smugmug.com/Woodworking/Other-Galoots/Paul-
Gardner/i-mMc3Ws3/A
>> https://kirkhmb.smugmug.com/Woodworking/Other-Galoots/Paul-
Gardner/i-LN25vGd/A
>> 
>> Paul, temporarily in LA



-- 
Yorkshireman Galoot
in the most northerly county, farther north even than Yorkshire
IT #300